LAS VEGAS (AP) — In the swing state of Nevada, the U.S. Senate race and most House races were too early to call early Wednesday.
The Senate campaign pits Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen — a former computer programmer and synagogue president — against Republican Sam Brown, a retired Army captain whose face is still scarred from injuries he suffered in Afghanistan.
Nevada was among the battleground states that drew outsized attention from the presidential candidates. But the Senate race drew little notice, though Rosen emerged as the favorite.
The first-term Rosen has outspent Brown by more than 3-1 in the contest, positioning herself as a nonideological senator who delivers for her home state on issues like broadband internet access and a high-speed rail connection with Southern California. Brown, who was awarded the Purple Heart, has campaigned on his biography and the state's cost-of-living crisis, particularly acute in working-class Nevada. He's had trouble gaining traction, though a last-minute infusion of GOP money in late October came as Republicans, cheered by strong turnout for their party in early voting, hoped Brown could upend expectations in the race.
“He hasn't really articulated a case for why we should get rid of Rosen, and Rosen has done a really good job of positioning herself as the prototypical Nevada senator,” said David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Damore added that since Nevada became a state in 1864, only five of its incumbent senators have lost bids for reelection. Most have behaved like Rosen, positioning themselves as nonpartisan leaders who deliver for the state.
“There's a history of longstanding, moderate senators who have dominated Nevada politics,” Damore said.
Rosen won in 2018 when the prior senator who'd occupied that role, Republican Sen. Dean Heller, veered sharply to the right in response to attacks from Donald Trump for not supporting the then-president adequately. The state's other senator, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, narrowly won reelection in 2022 with a similarly centrist, low-profile campaign against a Trump-backed candidate.
Nevada voters were divided over how they view Rosen and Brown, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 3,600 voters in the state.
Half of voters viewed Brown in an unfavorable light, but nearly the same number of voters viewed him positively. Rosen scored about the same with voters. Nearly half held a favorable view of the senator, and about the same number viewed her unfavorably.
Trump endorsed Brown in the state's primary, but his political career predates Trump. Brown tried to run for a statehouse seat in Texas in 2014 before moving to Nevada in 2018 and unsuccessfully competing in the 2022 Republican primary to challenge Cortez Masto.
Brown in 2008 was grievously wounded by an improvised explosive device during a Taliban ambush of his unit in southern Afghanistan. He left the Army in 2011 after 30 surgeries and years of recovery, founding a business to help veterans get medical care. Brown's face remains seriously scarred and has become central to his campaign ads.
“As a U.S. senator I will proudly stand alongside Donald Trump to make America affordable, safe and strong again,” Brown said at the Republican National Convention this summer.
Rosen has hammered Brown over his stance on abortion, saying he'd vote for a national ban if sent to Washington, D.C.
Abortion until 24 weeks of pregnancy is protected in Nevada by a 1990 state law. Voters on Tuesday approved a measure to enshrine the right to abortion until viability, which is after 21 weeks, in the state constitution. It must pass again in 2026 to go into effect.
Brown describes himself as “pro-life” and contends he never filled out a 2022 questionnaire that states he opposes exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother. Brown and his wife Amy sat down for a joint interview with NBC News earlier this year describing an abortion she had before the two met.
Meanwhile, Rosen kicked off her reelection earlier this year with an ad in which she states: “Six years ago I promised to do what's right for Nevada, not my party leaders.”
The Nevada race was among a handful of close contests that will determine how large a Republican majority President-elect Trump will work with in the Senate. The GOP already clinched the Senate majority in the 2024 general election, retaking it from Democrats who held it for four years.
Nevada has three Democratic-held House seats that could be competitive, but Republicans are significant underdogs in all of them.
“They did a horrible job of recruiting,” Damore said of the state Republican party, which has been taken over by hardline pro-Trump activists.
Several key state House races were also too early to call early Wednesday.
Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, who has represented Nevada's 1st Congressional District for more than a decade, again faces a challenge from retired Army Col. Mark Robertson. Titus defeated Robertson in 2022 by nearly 6 percentage points. Her district is reliably blue, covering Las Vegas and portions of the city's suburbs of Henderson and Boulder City.
In the 3rd Congressional District, widely considered the state's most competitive, Democratic U.S. Rep. Susie Lee is trying to defend her seat from Drew Johnson, a conservative policy analyst. The district includes a large swath of the culturally diverse Spring Valley neighborhood in Las Vegas, but also more rural areas in Clark County, which is the state's most populous.
Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, is looking to keep his seat in Nevada's sweeping 4th Congressional District that covers downtown Las Vegas and deep-red rural counties including Nye, Mineral and Esmeralda. He faces a challenge from former North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, now a Republican after switching parties and running an unsuccessful primary campaign in 2022 for governor.